A BREXITEER shut down the Sky News presenter Sarah-Jane Mee when he outlined a clear distinction between being “non-political” and “never having an opinion”.

Mark Littlewood, Director at Institute of Economic Affairs, has been accused of engaging in a “cash for access” to politicians scheme but he argued that his think tank has done nothing untoward.

He said: “One thing to correct you on we are not in favour of a hard Brexit, in fact we polled the IEA staff at the time of the referendum and 37 percent were in favour of Remain and 50 percent were for Leave.

“I have actually conducted television interviews against my own staff. What we are in favour of is the free market school of thought which the charities commission says is a perfectly legitimate school of thought to promote.

“We put arguments from a free market perspective to try and educate people about the role that free markets can play.

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“Obviously we try to be relevant to what is happening in the world and Brexit is a huge event.

“We are treating it as a fact that Brexit is going to happen and being a free market think tank we want to investigate research and promulgate the best ways that free markets can operate when this process comes to a conclusion.

Sarah-Jane Mee said: “What is going to sit uncomfortably with people is you claim to be politically neutral and then you tweet ‘remaining in the customs union could be the backdoor to keeping many obligations of the single market, preventing the UK from making the most of opportunities to reduce barriers to trade with the rest of the world’.

“Yet you maintain you have no corporate view on Brexit?”

We are treating it as a fact that Brexit is going to happen

Mark Littlewood

Mr Littlewood responded: “That refers actually to a lot of research done by our trade unit at the IEA.

“You have got to distinguish between being non-political and never having an opinion.

“Think tanks such as my own and a variety of others right across the political spectrum come at policies and problems from their own philosophical perspective.”

Brexit news: Mark Littlewood said he was treating Brexit as a fact (Image: Sky News)

The think tank has been accused of offering donors access to government ministers and civil servants, claiming that it was in “the Brexit-influencing game”.

A spokesman for the IEA said: “It is spurious to suggest that the IEA is engaging in any kind of ‘cash for access’ system.

“All think tanks have relationships with government officials and politicians.”